Friday, 30 November 2012

Safe Lifting over Christmas-the Chiropractic way!

Christmas dinner anyone?? I love a juicy turkey with all the
trimmings but if you’ve got your family coming around for Christmas lunch that
turkey ends up being pretty big.

The last thing you want on Christmas day, (when your
chiropractor is at home enjoying their own Christmas dinner), is to put your
back out lifting the turkey into or out of the oven. So here are some good lifting and bending tips to make sure
lifting of that giant turkey doesn’t spoil your dinner!!

The first tip for bending is to bend in a way that is called
the ‘hip hinge’ – this pattern of movement ensures that you don’t add extra
stresses to your lower back, this is always a good way to bend especially when
you are lifting a heavy weight.

Practice doing the
hip hinge correctly with a broom or mop, if the pole stays
against your head, mid back and bottom as you bend then you have the movement
pattern correct, the aim is to bend at the hips and not in your lower back.

For a deeper bend that wont stress your
lower back, when you come back to standing make sure you push up using your
thighs and bottom muscles, as this will protect your back.

This is a safe bending technique to use when lifting and to
help your body get used to a different movement pattern it is a good idea to
practice the movement at other times so that when it is important you are more
used to doing it. A squat exercise is a good way to practice this movement
pattern, whilst strengthening your thighs and bottom muscles at the same time.

That's the bending sorted, now for the lifting. When you lift a heavy weight you need to fix your shoulder
blades back onto your rib cage to ensure you use the big muscles in your back for
strength rather than the small muscles at the top of the shoulders, this simple technique should keep you injury free.

For more movement and strengthening exercises visit our
Facebook page where we have photos and information about how to do the
exercises.